Seah Kim Joo (b. 1939, Singapore) was raised in Terengganu, which is where he was first

exposed to the traditional batik cloth making process. He returned to Singapore to study at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1959. Upon graduating, Kim Joo returned to Terengganu, travelling the Malaysian east coast in order to consolidate his learning of batik techniques. He is most well known for his large-scale five-panel batik painting, Malayan Life (1968), which was commissioned for the opening of the Malaysia Hotel in Singapore.